AWS Account Root User Credentials vs. IAM User
Credentials

All AWS accounts have root user credentials (that is, the credentials of the account
owner). These credentials allow full access to all resources in the account. You cannot
use
policies within your account to
explicitly deny access to the root user. You can only use an AWS Organizations service control policy (SCP)
to limit permissions to an account, including the root user, that is a member of an
organization
or organizational unit (OU). Because of this, we recommend that you delete your root
user access
keys and then create AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) user credentials for
everyday interaction with AWS.
For more information, see Lock away your AWS account (root) access keys in the
IAM User Guide.

Note

You may need AWS account root user access for specific tasks, such as changing an
AWS support plan or closing your account. In these cases, sign in to the AWS Management
Console with
your email and password. See Email and Password
(Root User).

With IAM, you can securely control access to AWS services and resources for users
in
your AWS account. For example, if you require administrator-level permissions, you
can
create an IAM user, grant that user full access, and then use those credentials to
interact
with AWS. If you need to modify or revoke your permissions, you can delete or modify
the
policies that are associated with that IAM user.

If you have multiple users that require access to your AWS account, you can create
unique credentials for each user and define who has access to which resources. You
don't need
to share credentials. For example, you can create IAM users with read-only access
to
resources in your AWS account and distribute those credentials to your users.

Note

Any activity or costs that are associated with the IAM user are billed to the AWS
account owner.

Javascript is disabled or is unavailable in your browser.

To use the AWS Documentation, Javascript must be enabled. Please refer to your browser's
Help pages for instructions.